Monero is hard forking to create MoneroV

Monero is hard forking to create MoneroV

Why MoneroV?

MoneroV is the first hard fork of the Monero cryptocurrency to improve on the now four year old technology. The hard fork is scheduled for block 1529810 which is estimated to occur on March 13th 1564965 which is estimated to occur on April 30th, 2018. MoneroV seeks to address the scaling problems Monero will face going forward and to enable faster development of the blockchain by unshackling the project from its past.

As with all hard forks, anyone that controls their private key on the Monero blockchain, will own MoneroV. However, contrary to when Bitcoin Cash forked from Bitcoin in late 2017 instead of Monero owners receiving 1 MoneroV for every Monero, instead they will be awarded with 10 times the MoneroV! Something that will no doubt draw speculative investors who will seek to own both currencies after the fork. Those investors might be well rewarded, given the improvements to supply, scale and on-going development MoneroV intends to make.

Scale

MoneroV shifts away from having an infinite supply of coins – as on the Monero blockchain. This is quite a huge fundamental difference and one that’s hard to argue with. Monero’s current infinite coin supply acts as a tax in the form of inflation on all Monero owners. Because of this, Monero could never seriously compete with Bitcoin, which as we know has a capped supply of 21 million. MoneroV addresses this head on – and this is what makes the hard fork necessary – by setting a total supply of 256 million, which is roughly twice Nano’s 133 million, but not as large as Cardano’s 45 billion.

Supply

If you think scaling has proven difficult for Bitcoin, with its huge transaction fees and 155 gigabyte blockchain, then Monero has positively failed. If Monero was to handle the same number of transactions as Bitcoin has to date, it would have a 7.7 terabyte blockchain. It’s hard to know exactly what its transaction fees would be at that point, but they would certainly be higher than Bitcoin. Therefore MoneroV is going to introduce a new protocol which will permanently reduce transaction fees and the blockchain size. Due to the lack of development support in Monero currently, implementing this new protocol and other software improvements is not possible, which leads us nicely on to…

Finance

In terms of ongoing development MoneroV intends to allocate ~5% of all mined blocks to the on going development of the project, including paying third party developers for contributions. This is in stark contrast to the stagnation the Monero project has seen over the last few years. Given Monero’s challenges ahead, it is critical to the success of the project that they have the funds and development effort to be able to adapt to the fast paced cryptocurrency space. That said, there is one huge threat on the horizon…

Centralisation

As with all proof of work cryptocurrencies, centralisation is a huge threat. While Bitcoin has totally failed to address the fact that now over 70% of all Bitcoin mining is done in China, Monero, as a privacy coin, will be held to a higher standard. With any privacy coin, centralisation is not just a threat to the security of the network as a whole, but also to the privacy features the network offers on top of the secure blockchain. How can users of a privacy coin trust in its privacy, if the network is owned by a few large mining pools? As it stands, the MoneroV fork does very little to address and will continue to use the same Cryptonight algorithm. However, centralisation is one of the biggest challenges for Monero and MoneroV going forward, so we can assume they are looking into what options are available. Whether its continually tweaking their algorithm to deter people from building ASIC miners, or moving to a proof of stake model remains to be seen.

Summary

While the community is divided, it seems that the MoneroV is an attempt at taking an already good technology and improving on it. Part of the beauty of blockchain technologies in general is that this is allowed and able to happen – allowing innovation to take many forms. While only time will tell if Monero or MoneroV will be more successful, both coins have no shortage of competition from several other tenacious privacy coins – many of which have already solved their centralisation issues with proof of stake consensus algorithms.

As always, ensure you have moved your original cryptocurrency balance into a new wallet, before using your private key on a different blockchain. For those concerned about privacy, it’s also advised to move your currency to a fresh wallet before the fork, to avoid revealing your transaction history on the new blockchain, by sharing your original address.

Editor’s Note: Originally aiming for around March 14th, the MoneroV (XMV) hard fork from Monero (XMR) has been postponed by six weeks. Citing a number of issues leading to the decision to delay, the MoneroV team announced the postponement of the snapshot to block 1564965, which is around April 30th. Full details can be found here.

Bitcoin (BTC) vs Bitcoin Cash (BCH): What’s The Difference?

In this post, we will be looking at the difference between Bitcoin (BTC) vs Bitcoin Cash (BCH).

Bitcoin (BTC) is a digital currency which was created in 2009 by a mysterious entity using the alias Satoshi Nakamoto. Eight years later on 1st August 2017, a ‘hard fork‘ of Bitcoin (BTC) created Bitcoin Cash (BCH).

Two Different Idealogical Camps: Bitcoin (BTC) vs Bitcoin Cash (BCH)

There are essentially two different idealogical camps in the the Bitcoin (BTC) vs Bitcoin Cash (BCH) debate.

It all started as a discussion about how to change Bitcoin. Something was needed to help it cope better with the increasing number of people using the cryptocurrency.

However, after years of debate, two different ideological camps arose with opposing views on how Bitcoin should scale its protocol. The miners wanted Bitcoin to use bigger blocks while the users and developers wanted to implement SegWit, an upgrade that would compress transaction data, so more transactions could fit in each block.

The argument about how to scale Bitcoin has centred around restrictions imposed by the original design of Bitcoin. These limited the way in which transactions were processed and put into the public ledger of transactions, called the blockchain.

The rationale for this was to put the security of the system ahead of functionality which, given the small number of people using Bitcoin in those early days, wasn’t an issue.

The options for lifting this restriction however became a sticking point between different groups of developers and their various supporters. One group, consisting of the Bitcoin core developers, decided on a gradual approach that would first make more space in the ledger by shuffling how things were stored. And then as a second step, increase the size of the “blocks” or groups of transactions that were added to the blockchain (the ledger that records all of Bitcoin’s transactions).

Another group of developers lead by ex-Facebook Developer Amaury Séchet, however, disagreed with this approach. They didn’t believe it would actually go ahead and came up with a different design. This essentially meant diverging from the existing Bitcoin blockchain and creating their own version.

The proposal of the Bitcoin core developers, called SegWit2x, wanted to improve the way Bitcoin worked by saying that signatures could be moved to a separate piece of paper, one that is filed along with the sheet containing the transaction information. Because there is more room on the paper, more transactions can be written down. The other proposal was to set a timeline through which the system would allow two sheets of transactions instead of just one.The developers behind Bitcoin cash didn’t agree with the idea of separating the signatures from the transaction. They thought this was a “hack”.

The goals of the two camps were the same, but neither was willing to compromise on how to get there. Therefore, Bitcoin forked into two different currencies, each sharing a common transaction history from before the fork. Bitcoin Cash is the chain supported by the miners who wanted larger blocks, and the regular Bitcoin chain is the one supported by the core developers.

In terms of the practical intents and purposes of most users, there is very little difference. However, it is imperative to understand that Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) are now two entirely separate currencies.

SegWit implementation

Supporters of Bitcoin Cash looked at SegWit as being an inadequate solution to the problem of scalability. It was also against what Satoshi had envisioned, especially with off-chain solutions.

Even if the upgrade was done, the pro-Bitcoin Cash (BCH) team felt that the way forward lacked transparency and would undermine the blockchain’s decentralization and democratization.

Proof-of-Work (PoW) Consensus Algorithm

Both Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) run on the Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus algorithm.

A Proof-of-Work (PoW) coin uses miners to confirm transactions on the blockchain. This isn’t the most environment-friendly option, as a large amount of energy-consumption is involved; but it is the most effective, compared to other consensus algorithms like Proof-of-Stake (PoS).

Besides not being environmentally friendly and slow there is also an added risk of a 51% attack on the network.

Key Differences Between Bitcoin (BTC) vs Bitcoin Cash (BCH)

One key difference between Bitcoin (BTC) vs Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is the difference in block size. Bitcoin has a 1MB block size, while Bitcoin Cash originally had an 8MB block size. In May 2018 Bitcoin Cash initiated a hard fork to increase the size of the BCH block from 8MB to 32 MB. The upgrade also added new OP codes to its codebase.

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) protocol allows for more transactions per second which translates to faster payments and lower fees. However, Bitcoin has much greater security and stability, as there is more mining support and infrastructure behind it.

So what does the future hold for Bitcoin (BTC) vs Bitcoin Cash (BCH)? Do you think there will be a greater demand for Bitcoin Cash (BCH) than Bitcoin (BTC) in the future? We will have to wait and see!

Dash

Dash – a fork of Litecoin – includes the features of Litecoin (limited supply, 2.5 minute block times, proof-of-work (POW) validation system) along with the ability to transact instantly, via an instant send feature, and anonymously, via a private send feature, and to vote on updates to the network. This is implemented through a two-tiered validation system. The first tier involves the traditional mining/POW system from Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and many others. The second tier includes a network of Masternodes which are required to maintain a minimum of 1000 DASH. Each node that maintains this minimum is deemed a Masternode that participates in confirming transactions instantly, anonymizing transactions by mixing public keys so you don’t know who the sender or receiver are, and voting on updates to the network. In exchange, the Masternodes receive rewards of about 2 DASH to every Masternode per week.

Pros: Contains many of the benefits of Bitcoin including decentralization, immutability, and limited supply; two-tiered system allows for very fast (~ 1 second) and/or private transactions for users willing to pay an additional fee as well as governance where Masternodes can vote on updates to improve the network (e.g., such as increased block sizes to improve scalability); fungible – due to the anonymity associated with the private send features, unlike Bitcoin where coins used in illegal transactions may be “marked”

Cons: Two-tiered system can lead to centralization as the cost to operate a Masternode of 1000 DASH is prohibitive to most; several competitors in the daily transactions space (Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Nano) and in the privacy coin space (Monero, Zcash, ByteCoin); private send feature does not fully anonymize transactions and they can be traced to previous transactions that were not anonymized; attempts to address multiple problems (transactions speed, anonymity, etc.) with one coin, whereas multiple coins focus on each of these problems individually and arguably in a better way

Dash uses the same proof-of-work (POW) system as Bitcoin to validate transactions, but a different mining algorithm in X11. Originally, miners could run X11 on CPUs but hashing power has increased considerably and now requires ASICs. As described above, Dash has a second tier made up of Masternodes that perform decentralized governance by voting on updates, mix transactions to anonymize them, and instantly validate transactions within a second as opposed to about 2.5 minutes to validate a transaction via the first tier POW system. Masternodes receive 45% of the block reward (currently 5 DASH per block), miners obtain another 45%, and the remaining 10% goes to the treasury system for development. Each Masternode has 1 vote for updates to the network. If a threshold number of Masternodes vote in favor of the update then it is enacted. In other systems like Bitcoin and Ethereum, updates to the network are made through a fork where the chain splits into two. Miners effectively vote for the update by continuing to validate transactions from the old chain or moving over to the new chain. However, this voting occurs after the fork, so the developers can add an update which does not end up being enacted if the miners continue to devote computing resources to the original chain. In Dash’s Masternode governance system, updates are voted on before they are added into the protocol.

Leadership/Community Participation

Dash is led by its creator and lead developer Evan Duffield and the Dash Core Team, a company made up of about 30 employees. Duffield has received some criticism for the release of Dash where almost 2 million coins were released due to a bug when the code was forked from Litecoin. Although Duffield claims that the community did not want him to relaunch or perform an airdrop, some suspect he did this on purpose to ensure he would have a significant portion of the coins. In this manner, he could control the network through the use of Masternodes by running a large percentage of them and voting for his own proposals and against proposals that did not directly benefit him. To be fair no one knows how many Masternodes are owned by Duffield or members of the Dash Core Team.

Transaction Volume and Market Capitalization

Dash is 13th in market cap (~4B) with a transaction volume of about $130M per day.

Industry Participation

A few online retailer and businesses accept Dash such as Dash Video Casino, Organic Contraband Coffee, and a few other small companies. Additionally, it can be purchased through several exchanges, such as Bittrex, Binance, Bitfinex and many others. There are also Dash ATMs in select locations throughout the world. However, Dash has yet not received widespread acceptance and may only be used at very limited locations.

Security

In terms of security, Dash has many of the same advantages and disadvantages as Litecoin. Some argue that the second tier of Masternodes leads to additional security vulnerabilities, because the large cost (1000 DASH) of running a Masternode prohibits individual users or small entities from participating. Thus, only large entities may be able to run Masternodes which can lead to centralization. On the other hand, currently there are over 4700 Masternodes running on the network and while some speculate that the Masternodes are owned by a few entities, it seems more likely that there are at least a thousand owners. Accordingly, it is unlikely one company can take over the network or a hacker can attack one company that owns thousands of Masternodes and gain control.

Usability

Like Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, and NANO, Dash is intended to be used for day-to-day transactions. With the advent of the instant send feature, transactions can be completed in less than a second which allows for very fast cash like transactions. Additionally, Dash can be used with an element of privacy due its private send feature. There are many reasons why someone would want to transact privately. For example, on the Bitcoin network hackers and thieves may identify the wallets with the largest number of coins and target them.

Technical Features

As described above, Dash has many of the same features as Litecoin. The main difference is its second tiered network of Masternodes that performs decentralized governance and instant and/or anonymized transactions. Decentralized governance allows for the Masternodes to vote on updates to the network (where each Masternode has 1 vote) before they are implemented into the protocol. For example, Dash has dynamically increased block sizes through these updates during periods of high transaction volume. Though this seems to be more efficient than alternative mining systems which fork the code to perform an update, critics argue that a user or company, such as Evan Duffield or the Dash Core Team could control the voting power and thus, the network by owning enough Masternodes. Furthermore, unlike Monero the transactions executed by the private send feature are not fully anonymized. For one, they can be traced to previous transactions that were not anonymized. Additionally, the private send feature is a coin mixing service based on CoinJoin. The coin mixing service breaks down transactions into specific dominations of 0.01, 0.1, 1, and 10 DASH, mixes the denominations with similar denominations from other users and includes several outputs to each person’s wallet at a different address called a change address.Though the senders are anonymous in this implementation the transactions are not. Other privacy coins such as Monero utilize Ring Confidential Transactions to anonymize the transactions themselves.

Growth/Legal Risks

Being in both the daily transactions and privacy coin arenas, Dash has many competitors including Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, NANO, Monero, ZCash, and Bytecoin. Nevertheless, Dash does set itself apart via its two-tier system that allows for decentralized governance and by providing both privacy and daily transactions features in one coin. If only a small percentage of altcoins survive in the long term as many have predicted, Dash may be one of them since it implements multiple features.

Estimated Time of Arrival

Dash launched in 2014 and is now fully developed and ready for use. However, the Dash network has not been tested to the same extent as Bitcoin’s.

ETA: Now

Conclusion

The two-tiered network sets Dash apart in a unique way and allows for even more features to be implemented through its decentralized governance. Nonetheless, as Dash has not yet shown it is the best at any single feature (e.g., daily transactions, privacy), users may prefer coins that can focus on and perfect individual attributes within cryptocurrency over one that addresses several.

All You Need to Know about Ethereum’s Move to PoS

Ethereum’s move to PoS: radical shift from PoW to PoS

Ethereum, the world’s #2 cryptocurrency, with its impressive capabilities, has become a force to be reckoned with in the cryptoverse. One of its few criticisms, however, is it’s current mining method, PoW. That, however, is set to change. In this post we will explore Ethereum’s move to PoS.

With the first release of Casper, Ethereum will transition from pure Proof of Work (PoW) to hybrid PoW/PoS. According to Buterin “In this scheme, all of the proof-of-work mechanics will continue to exist, but additional proof-of-stake mechanics will be added”.

The main reason why PoS is seen as a necessary development is, of course, the need to reduce the energy requirements of PoW blockchains like the current versions of Ethereum and Bitcoin. A recent report claims that Bitcoin mining consumes as much power in a year as 159 countries, which is clearly far too much, and Buterin admitted that today’s Ethereum isn’t any better than Bitcoin in that respect.

So, what is Ethereum?

Ethereum was created in 2013 by the Russian-born programmer Vitalik Buterin when he was just 19. In basic terms, Ethereum is a distributed public blockchain network that runs smart contracts. For an in-depth analysis, check out our article on Ethereum.

Just how Bitcoin mining earns Bitcoin, in the Ethereum blockchain, miners work to earn Ether, a type of crypto token that fuels the Ethereum network. Ether is a tradeable cryptocurrency which is also used to pay for transaction fees and services on the Ethereum network by application developers.

Ethereum’s ultimate aim is to grow into a decentralized world computer that replaces server farms. Imagine it as one computer that can be used by the whole world, which cannot be turned off. Each update of Ethereum is planned to align this mission. So, every stage is designed to help Ethereum to scale while adding new features and improving security and user-friendliness of the platform.

The road till now – the 4 developmental phases of Ethereum

There are 4 development stages for complete launch process of Ethereum. They are as follows:

Frontier

Homestead

Metropolis

Serenity.

We will now look at each in turn.

Phase #1 Frontier: This was the first live release of the Ethereum network. Launched in July 2015, this phase introduced the mining of Ether and started building dApps and tools.

Phase #2 Homestead: This happened in March 2016 and was the first production release of Ethereum. This phase introduced many protocol improvements. These became the foundation for improving transaction speeds and for future upgrades.

Phase #3 Metropolis: This phase focused on building a lighter, faster and more secure Ethereum. It includes two hard forks – Byzantium and Constantinople.

Phase #4 Serenity: This would be the final phase wherein the long-awaited Proof of Stake (PoS) using Casper consensus algorithm will be brought in.

Ethereum’s move to PoS: why move from PoW?

The short answer – to reduce the power consumption of the Ethereum network and avoid enormous waste of energy. Proof of Work (PoW) and Proof of Stake (PoS) are both algorithms for reaching consensus on the blockchain. However, the approach is quite different.

In PoW, miners attempt to solve complex mathematical problems, which requires massive computing power and electricity. There are disadvantages like the possibility of 51% attack in PoW protocol. On the other hand, in PoS protocol, the miner putting up a stake – basically locking up an amount of their coins – to verify a block of transactions. So, the higher the stake, more the percentage of blocks that he can confirm.

Ethereum currently uses PoW algorithm and plans to move to PoS protocol shortly.

Casper – Ethereum’s PoS Protocol

Casper is the name given for the ‘proof-of-stake’ protocol for Ethereum. It is actually a combination of two research projects – Casper the Friendly Finality Gadget (FFG) and Casper the Friendly GHOST: Correct-by-Construction (CBC). They are referred to as Casper FFG and Casper CBC. The final form of Casper is expected to draw from learnings from both FFG and CBC.

Casper FFG: Nicknamed as Vitalik’s Casper, this is a hybrid POW/POS consensus mechanism. Here, there is a PoS protocol overlaying on top of the normal ethash PoW protocol. So even though blocks are still going to be mined via POW, every 50th block is going to be a PoS checkpoint wherein finality is assessed by a network of validators.

In short, Casper FFG PoS system on the current PoW chain to create a PoW/PoS hybrid and it focuses more on a multi-step transition to introducing PoS for the Ethereum network.

Casper CBC: This is being developed by Vlad Zamfir. Casper CBC is intended to replace the current PoW system used by Ethereum so that the main chain produces blocks through PoS.

Casper could be a part of the Constantinople hard-fork of Ethereum’s Metropolis phase. This hard fork may be likely to occur between 2018 and 2019 to ensure that Ethereum would be resistant against Bitmain’s powerful Ethereum miner named the Antminer E3. For more information about Ethereum Casper click here

Ethereum’s move to PoS in the Serenity Release

Ethereum plans to move from 100% PoW to 100% PoS in the Serenity release. Developers have programmed a difficulty bomb into Ethereum’s Blockchain so that PoS Ethereum Blockchain would be supported. This is expected to eliminate any confusion on which chain to follow – the chain with PoW or the chain with PoS.

Casper is expected to fundamentally change the way the Ethereum network functions – hopefully helping Ethereum scale new heights!

Ethereum: where PoW falls short, PoS is expected to thrive

In conclusion, Ethereum’s move to PoS will be beneficial for the following reasons:

As no mining, in its traditional form, will take place, the issue of unnecessary energy wasting will be forgotten about.

No competition in solving computational puzzles will mean no demand for advanced mining hardware. Therefore, more people will be encouraged to participate in the validation process.

PoS will make attacks on the blockchain even more expensive, despite significantly reducing energy costs. If anyone decides to buy up 51% of ether to try to alter transaction blocks, they’ll have to pay millions of dollars to get the coins (due to limited supply and increased demand ether price will be increased drastically) and then risk losing their money by destabilizing the very blockchain they’ve put their funds in.

Updates:

20/04/2018 – it was announced at a developers meeting on 20th April that the Ethereum Casper consensus protocol is ready for review. The Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 1011 – also known asHybris Casper FFG(Friendly Finality Gadget”) – is the long-awaited code that will serve as a bridge in the transition from the energy-soaking proof of work (PoW), to a safer, less power-intensive proof of stake (PoS). This process is called “minting”, and it is meant to be more environmentally friendly. EIP 1011 developer Danny Ryan reported, during a meeting, that the code is“ready for reviews and community discussions, etc.”He also stated testing phase for clients using the Ethereum blockchain would begin soon. “As these pieces of the puzzle are getting closer to being completed, I’ll signal that it’s time to start talking about fork block numbers.”

10/05/2018 – the release of the first version of the Casper “Friendly Finality Gadget” has been announced. Danny Ryan, the developer behind the Casper protocol update announced its first version on GitHub. This upgrade will help the client, auditors and other external parties to integrate the source code into their software more easily as explained by Ryan: “v0.1.0 marks us more clearly tagging releases to help clients and external auditors more easily track the contract and changes.”

Monero

Monero describes itself as ‘cash for a connected world’. It is an open-source cryptocurrency that focuses on privacy and decentralization. It uses a public ledger to record transactions while new units are created through a process called mining. Monero aims to improve on existing cryptocurrency design by obscuring sender, recipient and amount of every transaction made as well as making the mining process more egalitarian.

Many people (including dark web users) were under the impression that Bitcoin was anonymous. However, some members of Silk Road found out the hard way that because transactions are publicly recorded for everyone to see, users can be traced through their IP addresses.

Monero Percentage Increase Compared to the Average (Bit20 ETF) Starting in 2017

Monero addresses this issue by creating a privacy coin that masks the sending address, the receiving address, and the amount for every transaction on the network. Monero also uses a different hashing algorithm, CryptoNight, designed to be suitable for an ordinary PC and does not require a GPU or ASIC for mining. This reduces the costs of mining and allows for more users to participate, thereby increasing the decentralization of the network.

Pros: Anonymous transactions; fungible – due to its anonymity all Monero coins are the same, unlike Bitcoin where coins used in illegal transactions may be “marked;” increased decentralization with mining algorithm that can be run on a CPU; dynamic block sizes improve scalability and prevent the network from slowing down during periods of high volume

Cons: Anonymous transactions can be used for nefarious purposes (buying and selling guns, drugs, etc.); dynamic block sizes come with increased security risks as nodes may become expensive to operate and transactions are larger for Monero than other cryptocurrencies due to the extensive amount of encryption to anonymize the transactions; unlike many other cryptocurrencies that are deflationary, Monero is subject to inflation; difficult to use (e.g., there are no hardware wallets for Monero); vulnerable to a 51% attack if a mining pool or anyone else controls over 50% of the mining power

Monero uses the same proof-of-work (POW) system as Bitcoin to validate transactions, but a different mining algorithm in CryptoNight. CryptoNight is considered to be ASIC resistant as the algorithm can run on a CPU instead of a GPU or ASIC. The algorithm is actually better suited for a CPU due to the amount of RAM it requires, and this was designed specifically so that each CPU could perform mining and have voting power in the Monero protocol. By contrast, the mining algorithms employed by Bitcoin, Ethereum, and many others perform better on GPUs and/or ASICs, and only a small group of miners can afford the hardware necessary to validate transactions on these networks. Nonetheless, almost half of the hashing power on the Monero network is controlled by 3 mining pools making it vulnerable to a 51% attack.

Leadership/Community Participation

Though several of Monero’s developers remain anonymous, we are aware that the platform is led by developers David Latapie and Riccardo “fluffypony” Spagni. In addition to the lead developers, Monero has over 240 contributors working on improving the network. Software updates are added on OpenHub on a regular basis.

Transaction Volume and Market Capitalization

Monero has less than 1% of the transaction volume of Bitcoin (~$32M in transactions per day). Nevertheless, Monero is in the top 15 in market cap (~$2.6B) for cryptocurrencies.

Industry Participation

The coin has gained acceptance at a few retailers, including from several musicians such as the Backstreet Boys, Weezer, Mariah Carey, and Lana Del Ray. Additionally, Monero can be purchased through several exchanges, such as Binance, Poloniex, Bittrex, and many others. Still, the platform has not yet received widespread acceptance and is limited in where it may be used.

Security

In terms of security, Monero has many of the same advantages and disadvantages as Bitcoin. One of the main distinguishing features is the ASIC resistant hashing algorithm (CryptoNight) which was designed to combat centralization. However, dynamic block sizes and the extensive amount of information in each transaction may limit the number of miners who can run a full node on the network, so there is a bit of a trade-off there.

Usability

Monero is intended to be used in a very similar manner as Bitcoin, but with the assurance of privacy due to anonymized transactions. Although it may appear on its face that Monero was designed specifically with nefarious or illegal transactions in mind for use on the dark web, there are many reasons why someone would want to transact privately. For example, on the Bitcoin network hackers and thieves may identify the wallets with the largest number of coins and target them. Additionally, as the technology progresses further, it may become easier and easier to identify the owners of each wallet and people may not want everyone to know the amount of Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies that they own.

Technical Features

Monero uses advanced encryption techniques to anonymize the sender and receiver of a transaction, while still allowing miners to verify that the sender had enough Monero to send to the receiver and allowing the receiver to spend the received amount of Monero in a later transaction. This is accomplished by generating one-time private and public keys for the receiver and a one-time ring signature for the sender that is a combination of the actual signature and several decoy signatures. For example, when user A sends Monero to user B, the ring signature may consist of user A’s signature and 4 decoy signatures. Additionally, in the Bitcoin protocol and many other decentralized ledgers, each user has a public key and a private key. A user signs transactions using the private key. On the other hand, in the Monero protocol users have two private keys (a private spend key and a private view key) and two public keys (a public spend key and a public view key). When user A sends Monero to user B, user A uses a combination of user B’s public spend key and public view key to generate a one-time public key. User B then employs her private spend key to retrieve the coins. Some additional privacy features are also implemented in the protocol, such as hidden transaction amounts, and hidden internet traffic through the invisible internet project (I2P). Monero does allow users to make transactions transparent to a selected auditor, for example.

Growth/Legal Risks

Monero’s main competitors are other privacy coins, such as Dash, Zcash, and ByteCoin.Currently, Monero is recognized as the leader in privacy coins due to its popularity amongst dark web users although Dash has a larger market cap. As mentioned above, Monero has an unlimited supply although the block rewards gradually drop until they reach a fixed amount of 0.6 XMR per block starting in 2022. This will lead to about 1% yearly inflation. It is also worth noting that Bitcoin could implement privacy features for example, using a second layer protocol that sits on top of Bitcoin’s blockchain. Due to Bitcoin’s advantage over Monero in networking effects, users concerned with privacy could go back to Bitcoin driving down the demand for Monero. In fact, the Lightning Network by Lightning Labs implements some privacy features although they are not as strong as Monero’s. Participants opening and closing channels on the Lightning Network record transactions on Bitcoin’s blockchain which does not include the added privacy features.

Estimated Time of Arrival

Monero was launched in 2014 and is now fully developed and ready for use.

ETA: Now

Conclusion

As the emerging leader in privacy coins, Monero has a bright future particularly if users come to expect a level of privacy in their transactions. On the other hand, Monero has a significant amount of competition from the other privacy coins and its association with the dark web seems to taint the currency. The demand for privacy in cryptocurrency transactions for the average user in the future is unclear, but Monero has positioned itself well in the event that this feature becomes a necessity.

Ethereum

Ethereum

As a decentralized platform that utilizes blockchain technology, Ethereum has many of the advantages (better security, immutable, trustless, no need for a central authority) and drawbacks (scalability issues and high transaction fees) of BitcoinEther Percentage Increase Compared to the Average (Bit20 ETF) Starting in 2017.

Its distinguishing feature, however, is the ability to generate and execute “smart contracts,” which are a set of terms and conditions that allow for the automated exchange of tokens or digital assets. For example, Alice may automatically receive Bob’s tokens when the Cubs win the World Series, and Bob may automatically receive Alice’s tokens when the White Sox win the World Series. Through the use of these smart contracts, companies can develop decentralized applications (dApps) on the Ethereum platform, where users receive digital assets when a particular set of conditions occur. The Ether coin is referred to as the “gas” for executing the smart contracts on the Ethereum platform, which means users have to pay a certain amount in Ether to run a contract.

Pros: Executes Turing-complete smart contracts; platform for developing dApps; allows for the exchange of a wide range of digital assets; strong leadership in Vitalik Buterin and a development team of over 200 contributors; several tokens run on the Ethereum ERC20 token standard; second largest market cap to Bitcoin

Cons: Scalability issues; rising transaction fees (has reached ~$0.50 per transaction); vulnerable to a 51% attack if a mining pool or anyone else controls over 50% of the mining power

Validation Method

Like Bitcoin, Ethereum uses a proof-of-work (POW) system to validate transactions by miners required to solve a cryptographic riddle which is difficult to compute but easy for others to verify. Therefore, mining requires a large amount of computing resources and electricity. Additionally, a POW system is vulnerable to a 51% attack, where a single miner or mining pool (made up of several miners working together who split the rewards) has more than half of the mining power of the network. As a result, the miner can refuse to validate transactions and can double-spend Ether. On the other hand, the likelihood of a 51% attack is low, because this would devalue the currency that the miners are working to obtain.

Currently, Ethereum is considering switching to a proof-of-stake (POS) system called Casper, where the validator for the next block is selected based on a combination of random selection, account balance, and the number of days the coins have been held.

Leadership/Community Participation

The Ethereum Foundation is led by Vitalik Buterin, a Russian-Candian programmer and entrepreneur who co-founded Ethereum before he turned 20 and has been referred to as a “boy genius.” The Ethereum Foundation includes over 200 members who are actively improving the functionality of the network. Software updates are added on Github on a regular basis.

Transaction Volume and Market Capitalization

Ether has the second largest market cap to Bitcoin (~$80B) and a transaction volume of about 1 million transactions per day. Nevertheless, Ether has been experiencing scalability issues as transaction volume has rapidly increased leading to rising transaction fees. Multiple solutions to this problem have been proposed including a multi-layered protocol similar to Bitcoin’s Lightning Network where most transactions will occur on off-chain micropayment channels. Another proposed solution is referred to as “sharding,” where nodes no longer store the full state of the network and instead each node merely stores a subset of the data. Then the nodes communicate with each other to obtain data which is not stored at a particular node. But, this system isn’t trustless since nodes need to obtain data from the other nodes.

Industry Participation

Several players have been involved in creating dApps on the Ethereum platform. This includes CryptoKitties (an extremely popular game where virtual cats have been sold for up to $100k), Eth-Tweet (a microblogging service), and WeiFund (a crowdfunding service). While we have not yet seen dApps created by large companies, some big businesses such as Toyota have been experimenting with applications utilizing the Ethereum blockchain.

Security

In terms of security, Ether has many of the same advantages and disadvantages as Bitcoin. Executing smart contracts on the blockchain may open Ether up to additional security issues, however, because the code used to run the smart contracts is made public. Everyone in the network then has the ability to review the code, find bugs, and exploit them before the developers become aware of the bugs and are able to make corrections.

Usability

Ether is a utility token used as fuel for operating the Ethereum platform. This means that each time a developer creates a smart contract or issues a token on the Ethereum platform, a designated amount of Ether is transferred. Several tokens and altcoins have been created on the Ethereum platform using the token standard ERC20. These tokens include: Tron, ICON, OmiseGo, Binance Coin, VeChain, Tether, Golem, and many others.

Technical Features

Although smart contracts can also be executed using Bitcoin, the Bitcoin smart contracts have limited functionality. Ethereum, on the other hand, uses an Ethereum Virtual Machine which executes Turing-complete smart contracts that can perform just about any computation, and are not limited to exchanging tokens. In this manner, additional information can be recorded and exchanged via the blockchain, such as identity information, product information, etc. Ethereum also utilizes oracles to communicate with the off-blockchain world for evaluating conditions in the contract. For example, if the terms of the contract indicate that Alice will receive 100 Ether from Bob if the average temperature in Chicago is over 50 degrees in January, an oracle collects temperature data for Chicago which is then evaluated by the smart contract.

Growth/Legal Risks

Currently, there are over 32000 ERC20 token contracts executing on the Ethereum platform, and this number has been increasing at an exponential rate. As developers and companies find more uses for smart contracts, the value of Ether should continue to rise. Even though the supply of Ether is technically unlimited, the issuance of Ether is capped at 18 million per year.

Estimated Time of Arrival

Like Bitcoin, Ether is currently in use and several developers have created dApps and tokens on the Ethereum platform. While it is still in its infancy, developers will likely experiment with more and more uses of smart contracts.

ETA: Now

Conclusion

Ethereum has the advantage of being the first cryptocurrency to be used in the execution of Turing-complete smart contracts. The possibilities for these contracts are endless, and the Ethereum project has the opportunity to transform not only the legal landscape, but how people and machines exchange value.

Bitcoin Cash

Bitcoin Cash is a hard fork of Bitcoin – meaning that it shares almost all of the same characteristics with Bitcoin except one: Bitcoin Cash uses 8 MB blocks while Bitcoin uses 1 MB.

Bitcoin Cash Percentage Increase Compared to the Average (Bit20 ETF) Starting in 2017

This adjustment to the Bitcoin protocol was made to address Bitcoin’s scalability issues. By using larger block sizes, the Bitcoin Cash protocol is designed to increase transaction speeds and decrease fees compared to Bitcoin. Those in favor of Bitcoin Cash argue that the larger block size solves Bitcoin’s scaling problem making it useful for daily transactions (e.g., for a cup of coffee) including micropayments. They also claim that the cryptocurrency that can handle small, constant transactions can also be used as a store of value, thereby replacing the need for Bitcoin. However, those opposed cast it in a much different light. They argue that a larger block size does not permanently solve the scaling problem and instead is a temporary solution that Bitcoin could easily adopt if it’s successful. Instead, Bitcoin Cash is one of many cryptocurrencies competing to be the leader in daily transactions. There are strong arguments on both sides making it very difficult to evaluate.

Pros: Contains many of the benefits of Bitcoin including decentralization, security, immutability, and limited supply in addition to improved scalability due to the 8 MB block size; fast confirmation times (~a few seconds); low transaction fees (~$.10 per transaction); decentralized development

Cons: Provides a quick fix to the scalability issue without finding a long-term solution; Bitcoin could always increase its block size in the future to match or exceed the Bitcoin Cash block size; vulnerable to a 51% attack if a mining pool or anyone else controls over 50% of the mining power; Bitcoin Cash mining is centralized

Validation Method

Bitcoin Cash uses the same proof-of-work (POW) system as Bitcoin to validate transactions. But its larger block size leads to expensive data storage costs, and as a result, only a few miners participate in the Bitcoin Cash network. Thus, it is highly centralized (only three miners control over 50% of the hash power: Antpool, ViaBTC, and BTC.com), making it vulnerable to a 51% attack.

Leadership/Community Participation

Unlike many other cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin Cash has a decentralized development team made up of developers from Bitcoin ABC, Bitcoin Classic, Bitcoin Unlimited, Bitcoin XT, and several others. This prevents any single group of developers from controlling the code. Although Bitcoin Cash does not have a prestigious leader like Vitalik Buterin of Ethereum or Brad Garlinghouse of Ripple, the cryptocurrency has many influential supporters such as Roger Ver, better known as “Bitcoin Jesus.”

Transaction Volume and Market Capitalization

Bitcoin Cash has about 1/10 the transaction volume of Bitcoin (~$400M in transactions per day). Even though confirmation times and transaction fees are significantly lower for Bitcoin Cash, the network has not been fully tested. On the other hand, Bitcoin Cash does have the 4th largest market cap (~$20B) of all cryptocurrencies and just recently came into existence after the hard fork of August 2017.

Industry Participation

Bitcoin Cash is accepted at some retailers, such as Overstock.com. Additionally, it can be purchased through several exchanges, such as Coinbase, Bitstamp, Binance, and many others. However, Bitcoin Cash has yet not received widespread acceptance and may only be used at very limited locations.

Security

In terms of security, it has many of the same advantages and disadvantages as Bitcoin.

Usability

Many argue that Bitcoin is meant to be used as a store of value, while Bitcoin Cash is better suited for day-to-day transactions including micropayments. Although this idea makes sense in theory, it is yet to be seen whether Bitcoin Cash can maintain low transaction fees and fast confirmation times when the network is flooded with billions of transactions per day. It appears that off-chain solutions like the Lightning Network or solutions that do not require a blockchain are better suited to handle exponential increases in transaction volume and micropayments.

Technical Features

As described above, Bitcoin Cash has almost all of the same features as Bitcoin. The main difference is its block size of 8 MB. This means 8 times as many transactions are included in a block, preventing the network from overloading and having a backlog of transactions that need to be confirmed. While Bitcoin’s mempool had been reaching close to 300 MB of unconfirmed transactions in January, the amount of unconfirmed transactions for Bitcoin Cash is typically under 1 MB.

Growth/Legal Risks

Even though it may appear that Bitcoin Cash is a direct competitor with Bitcoin, there is an argument that the two can coexist and users can have both for different purposes. Bitcoin may end up being used as a store of value while Bitcoin Cash is the cryptocurrency for day-to-day peer-to-peer transactions. As such, Bitcoin Cash’s main competitors are other cryptocurrencies that intend to be used in a similar manner, such as Litecoin, Dash, Nano, etc. Although there are many competitors in this space, Bitcoin Cash is currently the leader according to market cap, and has room to grow as the demand for cryptocurrencies that can perform day-to-day transactions and micropayments increases. On the other hand, if Bitcoin can address its scaling issues Bitcoin Cash may lose its advantage as the leader of a niche market within cryptocurrency.

Estimated Time of Arrival

Because Bitcoin Cash shares almost all of the same features as Bitcoin, the protocol is fully developed and ready for use. Nevertheless, the Bitcoin Cash network has not been tested to the same extent as Bitcoin’s, and we won’t know for sure how well Bitcoin Cash can handle daily transactions until its required to confirm hundreds of millions or even billions per day like a credit card company.

ETA: Now

Conclusion

The future is very hard to predict as there are so many possible outcomes when it comes to this cryptocurrency. It may emerge as the cryptocurrency used as a store of value and for daily transactions while Bitcoin is considered old technology. On the other hand, it may become obsolete when developers discover a more permanent solution to the scaling problem, such as by using off-chain transactions or a data structure other than blockchain. Of course, its ultimate fate is likely somewhere in between, but because their solution to the scaling problem doesn’t seem to be a permanent one, it’s value may be surpassed by other coins down the road.